Ginebra, Suiza, 26 de octubre del 2012.- En la reunión del Consejo General de 26 de octubre de 2012 los Miembros de
la OMC han aceptado la adhesión de Lao a la Organización, lo que permitirá que
ese país del Sudeste Asiático se convierta en Miembro a principios de 2013.
(de momento sólo en
inglés)
The deal —
the Protocol of Accession — was signed after the meeting by Laos’ chief
negotiator, Industry and Commerce Minister Nam Viyaketh, and WTO Director-General
Pascal Lamy. Copies will be submitted to the National Assembly in Vientiane.
All that remains is for Laos — officially the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
(PDR) — to ratify the membership package, and 30 days later it will become a
member, over 15 years after it first applied to join the WTO.
“Laos has
come a long way since it embarked on the road to membership in 1997,” said WTO
Director-General Pascal Lamy. “This is never easy for any least developed
country, and Laos’ first steps were slow. But it is now seriously reforming its
economy and its institutions, and has shown skill in its membership
negotiations.
“Even at
the end there were some tricky steps,” he went on. “The ability to strike the
deal says much about Laos’ own ability, the flexibility of WTO members who are
now implementing a series of decisions to speed up least developed countries’
accession to the WTO, the technical assistance several of them have provided,
and the invaluable mediation of the chair of the Working Party, Ambassador YI
Xiaozhun of China.”
General
Council chairperson Elin Østebø Johansen, who is Norway’s ambassador, told the
meeting: “This year has been a particularly important one for the WTO community
in the area of accessions: we welcomed four new Members, Montenegro, Samoa, and
more recently, the Russian Federation and Vanuatu.
“In July,
we also took a very important decision concerning the accession of least
developed countries, in line with the mandate by ministers at MC8 [the eighth
WTO Ministerial Conference]. I strongly believe that the forthcoming entry of
Lao PDR, an LDC [least developed country], into the WTO represents a
fundamental step towards its integration into world trade and into the world
economy,” Ambassador Johansen said.
“From a
systemic point of view, Laos’s entry will also take us a further step towards
greater universality in our membership and it is yet another sign of WTO’s
ability to deliver important results when members work together constructively
towards a common objective.”
Laos’
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith said: “In a
country like the Lao PDR, the accession process is not limited to changing some
laws and regulations. We had to change our way of doing business. Indeed, such
a mind change is a difficult and time-consuming exercise. Given the progress we
have made, both institutionally, legally and in our mindset, 15 years actually
seems a very short time.”
In that
period, over 90 laws and regulations were enacted, including on trading rights,
import licensing, customs valuation, investment, sanitary and phytosanitary
measures, technical barriers to trade, and intellectual property rights, Dr
Thongloun said.
The task
was not easy but Laos benefited from help and advice from WTO members, he said.
But, “The negotiations at home — which have to lead to a buy-in into the
process — are much more important and difficult than the negotiations here in
Geneva,” he added.
Ambassador
YI Xiaozhun of China, who chaired the working party, paid tribute to Laos’
efforts as he reported to the General Council: “Over this 15-year period, Lao
PDR has undertaken profound domestic reforms and adjustments for its WTO
accession. The negotiating team has done an admirable job in this complex and
challenging process. As a former WTO accession negotiator for China, I
understand the unique challenges of the WTO accession process not only for the
acceding government, but also for WTO Members and the WTO Secretariat.”
Delegations
also welcomed Laos’ membership. They paid tribute to Laos’ efforts and the
collaboration of WTO members. They said the market opening and economic reform
accompanying WTO membership, with its principles of transparency,
predictability and rules, would help the country develop and make it more
attractive for foreign investment. Several of them called for similar
flexibility under current guidelines in the membership negotiations of other
least developed countries, some referring to Yemen as the next in line to
become a member.
At the end,
the working party of countries negotiating the membership package with Laos had
66 participants, counting the EU’s member states as well as the EU itself. They
agreed on the final deal on 28 September 2012.
Fact sheet:
Laos’ WTO membership
Is Laos a WTO member now?
What will membership mean for Laos?
Does the WTO believe that Laos can fulfil
its goals?
What are the most important issues facing
Laos as a new WTO member?
What has Laos agreed to do?
Is Laos a
WTO member now?
Not yet.
The negotiation is over. The membership package was approved by General Council
(ie, all existing WTO members) on Friday 26 October. Laos still has to ratify
the agreement and inform the WTO that it has done so by depositing its
“Instrument of Acceptance”. Thirty days later it officially joins the WTO.
Laos’ Industry and Commerce Minister Nam Viyaketh, the chief negotiator, said
he is confident the National Assembly will complete ratification in December.
What will
membership mean for Laos?
It allows
Laos to join the international trading community on a proper legal footing. In
WTO terminology, it enjoys a number of rights but also has some obligations:
The right to have access to other WTO
members’ markets according to their commitments and WTO rules. This access is
considerable in the case of more developed export markets
The right to be part of an international
trading system based on agreed rules rather than everyone-for-themselves, which
is transparent and predictable. Just one practical example: if countries want
to restrict imports from Laos or any other member on the grounds of food safety
or animal and plant health, they cannot do this arbitrarily — they have to
apply internationally-agreed standards or provide scientific evidence of risk.
WTO agreements also include rules for transit for a land-locked country.
The right to use the WTO’s dispute
settlement system, a legal process similar to a court in the WTO that countries
can use when they believe other members are breaking their promises or the
agreed rules
The right, as a least-developed country, to
more lenient terms and commitments than more developed countries. It also means
Laos having access to various “aid for trade” programmes which are coordinated
through the WTO even though the WTO is not an aid agency itself.
The obligation to comply with its commitments
to open up its markets to a degree, as it has agreed in its membership package
(details below).
The obligation to abide by WTO rules.
Implementing the various reforms can also help Laos to become a stronger
trading nation and to attract the foreign investment that it wants.
Does the
WTO believe that Laos can fulfil its goals?
“The WTO”
in this case means the 157 existing WTO members. They negotiated the membership
package with Laos and they believe it can comply.
In any case
Laos has already implemented many of its commitments and is well on the way to
doing the rest.
Being a
part of ASEAN’s regional trade and economic liberalization set up has helped
Laos prepare for WTO membership, as has the technical assistance that Laos has
received from developed countries.
What are
the most important issues facing Laos as a new WTO member?
As a
least-developed country, the biggest challenge is probably to develop enough
knowledge and skills within the bureaucracy to handle the wide range and
complexity of issues in the WTO and to implement the necessary reforms.
Laos has
asked for the technical assistance that it has been receiving from developed
countries to continue.
ASEAN
delegations in Geneva meet frequently so that is an opportunity to share
information and sometimes divide tasks within the group.
Laos’
Industry and Commerce Minister Nam Viyaketh also mentioned the tough challenge
of negotiating internally within the country:
“We knew
that we were engaged in a difficult exercise of convincing our trade partners
of our good will, but also the constraints we are facing as a least developed
country with a less bargaining power and still rely on ODA [overseas
development assistance]. We, however, underestimated the difficult negotiations
we would have to undergo at the internal front. Quite frankly, trying to
convince our trading partners of the position of Lao PDR only to go home, and
to convince our internal partners of the justification of the reforms
requested, was one of our most difficult and hard tasks.”
What has
Laos agreed to do?
Part of the
membership package contains the market access commitments that Laos is making
in goods and services — tariff ceilings on goods, subsidy limits in
agriculture, and access to its services markets. These are a combination of the
offers Laos itself made, with additional commitments agreed in bilateral
negotiations with the nine interested members — Australia, Canada, China, the
EU, Japan, Rep. Korea, Chinese Taipei, the US and Ukraine — and built into the
multilateral package.
The
multilateral deal also contains descriptions of Laos’ trade regime, and
wide-ranging commitments on laws and measures designed to ensure the regime
conforms to WTO rules. Laos is also land-locked. In order to support the
negotiations, Laos has received technical assistance from other WTO members,
who said they would continue to provide aid after it has joined the WTO.
When it
joins the WTO, Laos has agreed to the following:
Market
opening
For goods,
Laos is committing “bound” tariffs (effectively maximum rates) that average
18.8% for all products — 19.3% on average for agricultural products, and 18.7%
for the rest.
In
services, Laos has made market access commitments, subject to agreed conditions
and limitations, in 10 sectors, covering 79 sub-sectors. The 10 sectors are:
business services, courier and telecoms services, construction, distribution,
private education, environmental services, insurance, banking and other
finances, private hospital services, tourism and air transport.
Other
commitments include:
Tariffs will be “ordinary customs duties”
only, within committed levels, with no additional duties and charges.
Agricultural subsidies to be according to
Laos’ “schedule” of commitments — including no export subsidies.
WTO rules, such as rules of origin,
preshipment inspection, anti-dumping measures, countervailing duty, safeguards,
customs valuation, export measures including prohibitions, subsidies,
trade-related investment measures, free zones, laws on transit operations,
preferential trade under bilateral, regional and other agreements, to comply
with WTO agreements immediately.
Technical Barriers to Trade (product
standards and labelling) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (food safety
and animal and plant health) agreements fully implemented by 1 January 2015.
Intellectual property protection to comply
fully with the WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) Agreement by 31 December 2016. (The agreement includes special
provisions for least developed countries, see www.wto.org/trips)
WTO rules on trading rights to apply from
the date of becoming a member, with some exceptions for two years, although
measures can be applied under WTO agreements on import licensing, technical
barriers to trade (product standards and labelling) and sanitary and
phytosanitary measures (food safety and animal and plant health).
State enterprises to import or export
broadly under commercial terms, and to notify their imports and exports to the
WTO.
Price controls will be consistent with WTO
rules on trade in goods, agricultural products and services.
Companies and individuals to have the right
to legal appeal on government administrative actions covered by WTO rules, including
those on trade regulations, subsidies, customs valuation, intellectual property
rights and domestic regulation in services.
Laos’ commitments and WTO rules to be
applied throughout the country and enforced by the government without the need
for recourse to the courts.
Government fees and charges for services
will be according to WTO agreements.
Taxes and other charges on imports to
comply with WTO agreements including national treatment (non-discrimination
between imported and domestically produced products).
No quantitative restrictions such as
licensing, quotas, prohibitions, bans and other restrictions, except if for
balance of payments purposes, which would follow WTO rules.
Transparency: Laos to submit initial
notifications as required within six months. All relevant laws, regulations and
other measures will be notified as required by WTO rules and be made public in
print and on the Internet. An Official Gazette to be set up within three years.
Background
Laos
Accession Working Party members 2012: Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Brunei
Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, Dominican Rep., EU, Haiti, Honduras, Hong
Kong, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Rep. Korea,
Lesotho, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei,
Tanzania, Thailand, Ukraine, United States, Viet Nam, Zambia
Chairperson:
Ambassador Yi Xiaozhun of China
Secretary:
Mr Dayong Yu
Co-Secretary:
Ms Petra Beslać
Director of
the WTO Accessions Division: Mr Chiedu Osakwe
Lao
People’s Democratic Republic applied to join the WTO on 16 July 1997. The
General Council agreed to set up a working party on 19 February 1998. The
working party met on 28 October 2004, 30 November 2006, 15 November 2007, 4
July 2008, 14 July 2009, 24 September 2010, 29 June 2011, 16 March 2012, 12
July 2012 and 28 September 2012.
Statement
by Dr Thongloun Sisoulith
Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Lao PDR
at the WTO
General Council meeting, Geneva, 26 October 2012
Madam
Chairperson,
Mr Director
General,
Distinguished
Ambassadors,
WTO Member
Representatives,
On behalf
of the Government and the People of the Lao PDR [People’s Democratic Republic],
I wish to express my sincere appreciation to chairperson of today’s General
Council meeting for chairing this special session on Lao PDR’s accession to the
WTO. We are grateful to the members of the Working Party for bringing us to
this stage, under the leadership of its Chairs, H.E Ambassador Geoff Raby and
H.E Ambassador Bruce Gosper from Australia, H.E Ambassador Tim Groser from New
Zealand, Dr Xiangchen Zhang, and last but not least H.E Ambassador Yi Xiaozhun
from China, for their effective chairmanship.
Madam
Chairperson,
Today, 26
October 2012, is a historical moment for the government and people of the Lao
PDR. The accomplishment recorded today is a result of a long period of
intensive and comprehensive work. Indeed, we have been preparing for this
milestone for 15 years. It has been 15 years of learning and understanding the
functioning of the global trading system and how the Lao PDR could integrate
into it through experiencing and practicing mutual respect. On behalf of the
Lao Government, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to all WTO members
for adopting the General Council Decision on the Accession of the Lao PDR. We
will be so proud to share this historic news to our counterparts at the 9th
Asia-Europe Summit, to be held soon on 5–6 November 2012 in Vientiane, the
capital of the Lao PDR.
The
principles this organization is based on, namely non-discrimination,
transparency and predictability, are cherished principles of the Lao PDR.
Hence, the multilateral trading system which ensures that economic relations
between nations are based on fair and predictable rules is of paramount
importance to a small, landlocked, and least developed country like the Lao
PDR. As a new member of this organization, Madam Chairperson, the Lao PDR will
do its utmost to contribute to the evolution and the functioning of the WTO by,
first of all, fully abiding by its rules and obligations, and by constructively
participating in its deliberations and negotiations.
Madam
Chairperson,
In July
1997, the Lao PDR applied for WTO membership. It was a bold and logical step of
moving towards market-oriented economy since the introduction of the “New
Economic Mechanism” policy in 1986. The Lao PDR remains relatively young in terms
of both, its legislative framework and its governance. Nevertheless, the
country has strived to improve its legal framework and institutions to ensure
that its population has all the necessary conditions to reach their economic
potentials and to reap full benefits from our development. Throughout the past
one and a half decade, over 90 laws and regulations have been enacted covering
various areas such as trading rights, import licensing, customs valuation,
investment, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade,
and intellectual property rights. Against this backdrop, this has never been an
easy path. It requires the mobilization and the concerted efforts of all forces
available in our country, and we have been fortunate to benefit from this
process of collaboration. Moreover, the comments and suggestions received from
our partners in the WTO have proven to be useful as they help to ensure that
our new laws and regulations are fully in conformity with WTO rules.
Madam
Chairperson,
The Lao PDR
has experienced many constraints and difficulties in the process of accession,
I believe, similar to most recently acceded LDC [least developed country] WTO
members. In a country like the Lao PDR, the accession process is not limited to
changing some laws and regulations. We had to change our way of doing business.
Indeed, such a mind change is a difficult and time-consuming exercise. Given
the progress we have made, both institutionally, legally and in our mindset, 15
years actually seems a very short time.
We must
always remember that countries like ours desperately need a functioning
multilateral trading system to protect ourselves from the exercise of
discretionary powers. We therefore have a special responsibility to ensure that
the system continues to work. For that, we have to be full and active members
of this Organization. We have learned important lessons during these years,
which we are more than willingness to share with LDCs currently negotiating
their WTO accession.
The most
crucial element in our accession process has been the political determination
and internal coordination and cooperation. WTO guidelines and benchmarks for
LDCs accessions are essential to ease this difficult exercise. However, the
catalyst is always the political will to undertake the required reforms and to
create the necessary internal capacity across line ministries. The negotiations
at home — which have to lead to a buy-in into the process — are much more
important and difficult than the negotiations here in Geneva.
Madam
Chairperson,
The Lao PDR
could not have succeeded without the support it was fortunate to receive in the
forms of financial and technical assistance from bilateral and multilateral
donors. Thanks to the generous assistance provided, we have been able to
re-define and implement the reform programmes needed to be executed. We
appreciate the effective and demand-driven use of donor support for the Lao PDR
to comply with WTO obligations.
The
accession process has been a guide and a pushing force towards reforms in our
trade and economic framework taking into account international best practices.
Working Party Members were constantly supportive, with their comments,
suggestions, cooperation and understanding, allowing us to gradually introduce
the necessary economic restructuring. The accession process, as I have
mentioned earlier, has helped paving away to attain the Millennium Development
Goals by 2015 and graduate from LDC status by 2020. We are privileged to see
the benefits of our reforms already during the process. The Lao PDR has
experienced a protracted period of sustained growth rates of its economy, over
seven per cent on average during this past ten-year period. Foreign direct
investment has increased from 25 million dollars in 2002 to almost 3 billion
dollars in 2011.
Madam
Chairperson,
In the
immediate future, the Lao PDR is fully committed to ensuring that the
ratification procedure will be completed within the set timeframe. The Lao
PDR’s National Assembly has supported the accession process, enacting
WTO-compliant legislation throughout this period. Members of the National
Assembly are, in fact, part of our National Steering Committee, and have
closely followed the whole accession process.
We are
fully aware that implementation of our commitments requires the involvement not
only of the central Government, but also all administrative levels. We have
already begun the institutional set-up and planning. We will continue our
efforts in disseminating the results of our negotiations with the private
sector and the general public. We have foreseen a post-accession campaign not
only in Vientiane Capital, but also in the provinces, both to advocate them
about the package agreed with our partners, and to mobilize their support in
taking full advantage of the new opportunities that these reforms offer. This
process requires training government officials in the new legislative and
policy framework. Towards this end, I appeal to our development partners to
continue their assistance and support in this implementation phase.
Madam
Chairperson,
The Lao PDR
reiterates its firm commitment and determination to become a full and active
member of the WTO by strictly adhering to its principles as well as by
participating actively and constructively in its negotiations.
In
conclusion, I would like to reiterate the Lao PDR’s deep appreciation for the
cooperation it has received throughout this accession process and beyond. May I
also express my sincere thanks to the WTO Secretariat, particularly the
Accessions Division and the ITTC [WTO Institute for Training and Technical
Cooperation] for their valuable assistance and support. My special thanks also
go to China, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the European Community,
Switzerland/IDEAS Centre, United States/USAID, Viet Nam, ACWL [Advisory Centre
on WTO Law], ITC [International Trade Centre], UNCTAD [UN Conference on Trade
and Development] and the World Bank, together with other development partners
for their assistance. Moreover, may I extend my gratitude to ASEAN [Association
of Southeast Asian Nations] member countries, LDCs friends and all WTO members
for their continued support. Last but not least, I would like to commend our
negotiation team led by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for their
dedication, perseverance and excellent work.
Thank you!
Fuente: OMC